1. Towards a tertiary future?
Conor King
9 October 2018

2. Why there is a tertiary debate

3. The call for a better tertiary system
The pressure to do something..
Business Council of Australia, to TAFE Directors Australia, Australian Education Union
Monash Commission
Parker, Warburton and Dempster – KPMG report
Nous: Griew and Borthwick
Australian Labor Party – commitment to a major review
But not:
Coalition or Universities Australia

4. The issue The economic and social
Reality is that nearly every one now needs a post school qualification.
BCA recognition of this significant
Much debate about who and how many should do what qualification
Debate about how to maintain work skills after initial qualification(s)
Relevance of immediate competency v underlying skill sets
The program practical
TAFE and VET struggling to define purpose and financing structure
Providers working across the sector boundaries

5. Implications University education is part of the education system
Assumption that most people can gain from post secondary education and training
Should not hold back learning of those more naturally suited to higher education
Changes nature of universities and other providers

6. Why IRU should engage Tertiary focus likely to shape future decisions
We can be constructive, assisting achieve good outcome overall and for universities
Avoid or reduce the undoubted risks for universities
Force us to reconsider assumptions that may no longer be useful

7. Some framing assumptions

8. What is tertiary? Post compulsory? Post school?
A practical approach : let school do its best, tertiary is what happens afterwards.

9. The point of focus
People and qualifications (should I mean learning and knowledge?)
Not providers
Providers have a dominant type yet many cross boundaries
Providers do not need equality, they need reasonable framework to show what they can do to achieve broad education aims
The ‘level playing field’ should be for a person deciding where they want to play

10. Recognising different provider ownerships
Regulate to the risks – allowing providers in and guiding them out
Universities and TAFEs set up for long term
Risks from size and at times for flexibility
Funding breadth of purpose
Not for profit
Often a niche market, may be incompetent, less likely to intend bad outcomes
For profit
Targeting a market, need a clear exit path

11. Education outcomes

12. School context Primary schooling – change of the 19th century
Completing year 12: doubled under Hawke Government 1984 to 1991 from low 30% to mid 70%
Economic advantage drives – for collective and individual
Social advantages support and encourage

13. VET and Higher education: How many have qualifications?
Source Australian Jobs 2018
In 2016, 67% of workers held post-school qualifications (up from 58% in 2006). The growth has been for both VET and higher education qualifications.
HE qualification 30%
VET qualification certificate III and above 31%
Small proportion have both
Year 12 only a rare career base
Much VET is not about first major qualification but adult learner employability enhancement
Wary of VET v HE arguments
Where/who/how would we contain HE take up?

14. LSAY data, 2006 cohort (year 9) in 2016
first year university from 2009

15. LSAY data, 2009 cohort (year 9) by 2017
first year university from 2012

16. Young women with medium to low ATARs more likely to apply to university (2016)

17. Implications: overcoming the fixation on ‘best and brightest’
Tertiary education for all:
best and brightest;
modest and middling; and
deplorable and dim.
Just who did enrol in the early 1980s?
The economic logic for this and thus need for funding charging system to support.
the relative gain from a degree v disadvantage of not having one
the nature of Average: is it rising, falling or steady state?

18. Questionable assumptions
Universities are only for the most capable
Mixing the best with others reduces their learning
A degree puts you ahead of every one else
From advantage of having a degree (or trade) to Disadvantage of NOT having
VET sits below higher education
More money should be invested in you the brighter you are

19. Do we need the sectors? Differences BCA to KPMG to Nous
Wary of higher education assumptions applied to VET, especially at lower qualifications

20. Universities TAFEs and other providers

21. Provider categories : do we need them?
Describing is useful
Prescribing can be limiting
Current types
Vocational training providers
Higher education providers
Universities, specialist universities, international universities, universities in training

22. Provider categories : or provider powers?
Powers that define
Range of qualifications
Range of fields
Number of students
International requirements
Self accrediting

23. And what about the university title?
No need to change essential Australian meaning
It does not require a set of other categories to allow it to continue
A university exercises full sweep of potential powers
Research integral
Others do not need to hide under a familiar term, they need to establish their difference
Resourcing not title is there only real issue

24. The teaching only idyll
Two versions
The US ivy league college:
great minds and teachers, no shortage of resources
Where would it come from?
Cheap and Nasty U
Eg the Griew Borthwick paper for the Monash Commission discussion
Remove ‘research’ element from base funding and reduce student charge

25. Research The base funding dilemma
How does research connect to the focus on learning delivery?

26. Responses